"Your grace, what are your orders?"
Sylvester stood before the two sons of Viscount, Mike, and Phil, who had been locked up for a month under his watchful eye. They had been reduced to mere shells of their former selves, their bodies weakened, and their minds broken through a slow and calculated process. But they were far from dying as they were forced to eat nutrients filled food — very nasty in taste, but food nonetheless.
The process of breaking their minds was very slow. But eventually, it began to show its effects. First, the two sons of Viscount stopped talking about bribing their way out as they initially thought they had been kidnapped. They then stopped talking about their privileges. Soon, they had also forgotten about their wives.
Sylvester made sure to turn them into completely blank slates, making sure they forgot how to even think properly. Initially, they tried to lie their way through, acting as if they had been broken. But nothing worked on Sylvester, as he could smell their lies easily.
Slowly, with pain, hunger, fear, and a lot of repetitive recitals of a few rules they must abide by in their life, they changed. Sylvester ensured that the only thing they remembered was their duty. And the duty was to serve the Viscounty, its people, and their noble parents.
The only tricky part Sylvester felt was their wives. The two women were sleeping with both men, and the men had no idea. The men thought they were the winners, but in reality, they were the fools. Sylvester feared that the brainwashing might get undone slowly if the two women tried to continue their past activities.
'What to do now? I don't have time to work on them since my training is in the advanced stages. Forcing them to straighten themselves won't work either. Perhaps I should leave this to Viscount and his wife. My help ends with fixing these two.'
"You will remain here and chant the rules until I return," Sylvester ordered the two brothers and let them sit under the faint light of a single torch.
…
Soon, Sylvester commenced his daily spear training in the open fields outside the town and castle. In just a month, he had unlocked some of the weapon's most guarded secrets. There were a few rules and tricks he'd discovered that governed its use.
The spear required an enormous amount of solarium to operate, something Sylvester was fortunate enough to possess. The reason behind the demand for so much solarium was that the spear relied on magical particles twice during a single strike. The first time was to activate it to the desired length, and the second time was to maintain that length. Without sufficient solarium, the spear would revert to its original size.
But Sylvester couldn't help but think that his spear's unique feature was, in fact, an advantage. It saved him the trouble of using Solarium to reduce the spear's size. The weapon acted like a spring that required force to extend, but it would always return to its original position once the force was removed. It was a convenient feature that gave Sylvester an edge in combat.
On the other hand, metal manipulation was a skill that Sylvester struggled with at first. However, he had Viscount Gordan to thank for showing him the way. The Viscount had allowed Sylvester to channel his solarium through his body, enabling Sylvester to experience the sensation of metal manipulation. From that moment on, it became a lot easier.
Not to mention, what Viscount Gordan did was a massive deal because to allow someone else to channel their Solarium into your body was akin to surrendering oneself to the other person's whims. If Sylvester wanted, he could have moved the Viscount like a puppet.
But, of course, everything went smoothly, and Sylvester achieved a better understanding of the manipulation. The trick was in separating the sense of fire and earth elements while trying to combine both. He had to train his subconscious mind to understand metal.
With all that in his mind, Sylvester began to test himself with various spear lengths and incorporated them into his fighting style.
'Alright, let's try this.'
Of course, he had read about the Eastern legend of the Monkey King and the way it fought with its magical stick. So he thought about trying something similar.
'Here goes the jump.'
He firmly planted the butt of his spear on the ground and leaped, imbuing the weapon with an ample dose of Solarium to increase its length.
Woosh!
Instantly, the spear soared upward at lightning-fast speed, Sylvester gripping it firmly just below the blade. As he ascended, he tapped into his vast reserves of solarium and continued to climb, maintaining his balance with ease.
Bam!
"Maxy! I caught a pigeon!" Miraj shouted while still sitting on Sylvester's back. "Can we cook it later?"
Sylvester was dumbfounded. He expected Miraj to be scared, but he seemed to be unbothered by it and instead enjoyed the wind and the view… of course, pigeon now.
"If you can hold onto it, then sure." Sylvester agreed and continued to rise higher.
Eventually, they reached the lower clouds but didn't go above them. They were at a staggering height of fifteen hundred meters, perched up on a single, thin spear pole. It was too magical to be true, and unbelievable unless one were to see it themselves.
"The view from here is magnificent," Sylvester murmured, his gaze sweeping over the sprawling landscape before him.
Then, without warning, Sylvester halted the flow of Solarium to the spear, causing it to revert to its natural shape in an instant. However, Sylvester was still suspended mid-air. So he began his descent, gaining momentum with each passing second.
Shhh…!
The wind whipped against his face, but the thrill of the moment was too great for him to care. He was confident that if his new technique succeeded, it would surpass even the highest SSS ranking moves in his arsenal.
Sylvester plummeted toward the ground like a projectile. He held his spear out in front of himself as he activated the runes for his attack. The light rune, the fire rune, and the air rune, in hopes they would help his body absorb the impact of the fall.
Woosh!
As he hurtled towards the earth, the fire rune ignited, causing flames to burst forth from Sylvester. He transformed into a living, breathing fire arrow with a streak of light trailing behind him, thanks to the power of the light rune.
"I'll either break my arms or succeed!" he exclaimed, bracing himself for impact. "Hold on tight, Chonky!"
"MEOWWWWW!" Miraj cried out, his fur flying back as he clung tightly to Sylvester.
"Just there!"
Sylvester counted down mentally as his speed, and the fire only increased.
…
Inside the Mineworth Town.
"I TOLD YOU! But none of you listened!" A man with long unkempt untidy hair and tattered clothes shouted, pointing to the sky. "THE WORLD IS ENDING!"
"Run!" The people screamed in fright.
"Hide inside home!"
"Pray to the Lord!"
"NO! Pray to Lord Bard!"
…
"THREE!"
"TWO!"
"ONE!"
BOOM!
The earth shook, and the sky darkened as Sylvester's spear made contact with the mountain valley. A roar erupted from the ground, and a cloud of dust rose into the air, obscuring the once-blue sky. The destruction spread in all directions, cracks spider-webbing across the earth's surface as the spear's fiery power surged through them, blasting everything into smithereens.
The damage wrought in those first moments was only the beginning, for the spear plunged deep into the earth, carving a crater and sending flames and light radiating out in all directions. The destruction was relentless, consuming everything in its path.
Though the event lasted a mere two seconds, the devastation was immeasurable. Mountains crumbled, and high peaks were reduced to rubble, the earth groaning and shaking as if in the throes of an earthquake.
As for Sylvester, he discovered himself in the depths of the earth, his spear boring through the ground long after the catastrophic energy had dispersed. In the center of the crater, he had burrowed a narrow, elongated tunnel.
Thud!
As the spear drilled deeper, Sylvester stumbled upon a peculiar cavity hidden beneath the earth. Without warning, he plunged headlong into the unknown abyss. The darkness was all-encompassing, yet he sensed that the size of the chamber was colossal.
"Argh! It actually hurt… I think I broke my collarbone. How deep are we, though? Wait! Chonky, are you alright?" he quickly looked behind him with a tiny sparkle of light emanating from his spear still.
Miraj was there, thankfully, but all his hair was now disheveled, looking as if someone combed all of them backward, leaving only the face clean to be looked at.
"Maxy!" Miraj voiced aloud.
"I'm sorry if it scared you." Sylvester apologized.
"Let's do it again! It was so much fun! We went with shwoo, and then boom! I loved it!"
"..."
Sylvester was not expecting that. The last he remembered, Miraj was scared whenever he tried to throw him onto some castle to spy. But this time, they fell from the bloody heavens, and the cat was happy instead.
'Is this because of his strange wing bones on the back?' he wondered.
"But where are we?" he muttered as he rose to his feet, his shoulder hunched in discomfort. He lifted his other hand and summoned a simple light spell to illuminate their surroundings.
Ting!
With a resounding ting, the spark illuminated the entire underground cavern with countless reflections, leaving Sylvester utterly flabbergasted. His jaw dropped, and his other shoulder slumped as he took in the unbelievable sight before him.
"W-What the… Diamonds?!"
________________________
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